SABMiller, the world’s second-largest brewer, is looking to gulp down Australian beer giant Foster’s Group in an acquisition valued at nearly $11 billion.
London-based SABMiller — whose brews include Grolsch, Pilsner Urquell, Peroni and Miller Genuine Draft — is in talks to buy Carlton & United Breweries, the beer-making part of Foster’s, according to a report in the Sunday Times of London.
The deal could put SABMiller in a position to challenge Anheuser-Busch InBev as the world’s largest brewer. SABMiller already owns the Foster’s brand in India and holds the US brewing rights.
A spokesman for SABMiller declined to comment, but earlier this summer reports had named SABMiller and Japan’s Asahi Breweries as possible suitors for Carlton & United, which is reportedly being prepared for a spinoff by its parent company.
Carlton & United, run by former navy weapons engineer John Pollaers, generates around 85 percent of Foster’s group earnings and has a profit margin of 38.5 percent.
South Africa-based SABMiller gets about 85 percent of its profits from the emerging markets of Latin America, Africa and Asia.